We need health care legislation that will give the American people the reform they have asked for: fix what is broken in our health care system, reduce cost and increase access to health insurance. That is why my Republican colleagues and I introduced the Common Sense Health Reform and Affordability Act (H.R. 4038).

I have often heard Henry Countians express their belief in traditional values, in their appreciation for the old ways, and their respect for the past. However, for a community as deeply rooted in what is perceived as tradition, it is very sad to see so little care taken of the physical reminders of where we have been and who we are.

A woman and her pocketbook share a unique bond. A pocketbook serves not only as a carrying case for any number of “necessary” items, it is also a fashion statement, and in some ways a reflection of her personality. A woman is apt to fuss about her purse now and then while a man will tend to carry around the same old wallet until it is so worn that bills start falling out. Most women need a frequent change in purses.

As Veterans Day is upon us, we must remember that our country stands tall because of what veterans did and the values they stand for. Although many of our country’s giants were veterans, it’s important to remember that many of the veterans who pledged their lives for our freedom are quiet heroes, common folk that we know as neighbors and friends and family members.

When I was a child, cars were not equipped with shoulder harnesses, only lap belts, and child safety seats had yet to be invented.

I remember clambering over back seats to take a nap in the rear compartment of the station wagon. I remember sitting literally on the edge of the front seat gazing out the windshield at stars and the roadside scenery whizzing by seemingly inches from my face.

On October 29, 2009, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the Democrats’ new health care reform legislation. The Speaker, who once famously promised the “most open and transparent Congress in history,” added more than 900 pages to H.R. 3200 behind closed doors to develop a bigger, more expensive and more complicated health care reform package, the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962).

As Governor Beshear and the General Assembly prepare for the upcoming legislative session, it is becoming increasingly clear that the state’s two-year budget will be the most challenging Kentucky has faced since the Great Depression.

Federal stimulus dollars have helped significantly, but unless Congress provides additional funds, the stimulus dollars will run out by the budget’s second year. Barring an economic miracle, there will be considerable budget gaps and no painless way to fill them.

I would like to thank everyone who came out to the recent New Castle Fall Fling on Oct 3. Thank you for braving the winds. I would like to thank the following businesses and individuals for helping us put on the annual New Castle Fall Fling: Walmart — LaGrange, Jerry Durrett, Steve and Rhonda Heightchew, Peggy and Chuck Cox.

I would like to thank our bands, Legacy and Longshot for keeping us entertained throughout the day.

One of my gurus, a psychiatrist famous in the 1940s and 1950s for his self-help program, wrote that one could take stress in stride by accepting frustration as an expected occurrence in everyday life. “Life is a business of frustrations,” he taught his patients to recite whenever the inevitable occurred. His was not a negative approach to life but rather a realistic one.

As we prepare for the Veterans Day assembly at Henry County High School, I wanted to once again thank the donors who contributed, this time by publicly recognizing them. I also want to list the details of the assembly, for anyone wishing to attend.

The owners and members of the following organizations – as well as the individual households listed– allowed us to reach our goal of providing medals to award veterans at this year’s assembly:

It’s hard to believe that in a county presumably named after Patrick Henry — that great man who declared, “Give me Liberty or give me death!” — that anybody would face the property rights issues the Cooks of New Castle are facing. Patrick Henry, by the way, was the first governor of Virginia in 1776, was also the first governor of what is now Kentucky.

Maybe your county officials could do some reading of a good biography of Henry. Public officials these days are in need of some learning about what Liberty really means.

The first priorities of the General Assembly may be to write the law and the budget that guides state government, but it also has an oversight responsibility as well.

Over the years that has led to the creation of eight committees that monitor a variety of programs, ranging from Medicaid to the way we spend our portion of the multi-billion dollar settlement the states reached with the major tobacco companies in the late 1990s.

I know many of you in Henry and surrounding counties have seen or signed a petition to remove Greg Derossett from his current position, or any other position that he may hold in this county. I am concerned that many of you do not know the whole story as to why this petition is being passed around by Mr. Bob Cook who resides on Scobie Lane in New Castle.

Having a few problems here in Henry County. You might remember us if you read the article about the windmills and solar in the Henry County Local. I don’t know how many of you have run across this but here goes. My wife and I are both disabled, we had to put up the wind and solar, and then started building our home. Because of a horse back riding accident with my wife, it was delayed in starting.

For months, members of Congress and the American public have hotly debated the right way to reform our health care system. We all agree that there are steps that can be taken to improve health care to make it more affordable and accessible, but the devil is in the details. It is critical that we find the right prescription for reform without adding to our climbing debt and deficit. One of the essential elements to successful reform that will reduce cost within our current health care system is comprehensive medical liability reform “tort reform.”

The Henry County KY-ASAP local board is a group of community leaders dedicated to developing policies that reduce substance use in Henry County. In keeping with that mission, we would like to introduce our new mini-grant funding opportunity. Our goal is simple: to support activities, programs, events or even budding ideas that encourage successful future generations in Henry County.

I would like to invite and encourage everyone to attend the third annual Eminence Halloween Festival. This year it will be taking place on Friday, Oct. 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Highland Renaissance Park. The admission is free but I encourage everyone to bring one canned good to be donated to the local food pantry.

Nearly everybody seems to have some set of personal values they follow to guide their actions, whether consciously or unconsciously. Those values surely vary some from individual to individual, but I am pretty sure that almost all of us value such traits as honesty, faithfulness and fairness in our dealings with others. Maybe there are sociopaths that don’t have much of a conscience, but I wouldn’t know about that.